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86th World Land Trust Council Meeting

Wednesday 23rd May 2012

22nd Annual General Meeting

Draft Annual Report & Accounts for 2011

Copies of the draft Annual Report and Accounts for 2011 were reviewed. While income was slightly below the previous year, core sources of income were seen to have held steady. It was explained that it had not been possible to finalise the accounts in time to circulate to Members prior to the meeting, as a number of issues remained to be resolved. On the advice of the auditors Trustees agreed to defer approval of the audited accounts until all remaining issues had been resolved.

Appointment and re-appointment of Trustees and Officers

Dr Gerard Bertrand was unanimously re-elected as Honorary President.

Mark Leaney was unanimously re-elected as Honorary Treasurer.

In accordance with Rule 24 from the Articles (Trustees retiring by Rotation), Gil Child and Bruce Pearson stood down as Trustees, and were unanimously re-elected.

Appointment of Auditors

Lovewell Blake were reappointed as Auditors for the coming year.

Eighty-Sixth Council Meeting

The Chair welcomed members of the Board and Executive of World Land Trust-US, who had been invited to attend the meeting.

Appointment and re-appointment of Council Members

Trustees agreed to invite Willem Ferwerda, former Director of IUCN NL and now director of a new organisation, Leaders for Nature & Business, to become a Council Member.

Financial Matters

Trustees reviewed and approved the management accounts up to April 2012. It was noted that an action plan had been agreed to improve the flow of income to General Funds to support the Trust’s operations. Council initiated a debate as to the proportion of income that the Trust should aim to allocate to the support of the conservation programme. Further consideration was deferred to a later meeting.

World Land Trust Gallery: It was reported that financially the gallery was doing better than had been expected, and there was reason to expect that it would eventually turn in a small profit. In the meanwhile it had been warmly welcomed by the Halesworth business community, and was working well to enhance the local profile of WLT.

Conservation Programme

Recent Activities. Members of the Programmes team gave presentations on activities and achievements, including:

the programme of symposia organised by WLT, the most recent highly successful event having taken place in London in February 2012

an overview of the recently completed Misiones land purchase project

CEO’s report on his recent visit to Argentina to conclude the agreement over the purchase of land in Misiones province

Review of major Ecosystem Services activities.

Trustees approved proposals to accept two new partners in Argentina: Fundación Biodiversidad and Fundación Naturaleza para el Futuro (FuNaFu). The two organisations would be working with WLT on the Misiones Rainforest Corridor project.

Development Activities

The Council reviewed a report on the continuing growth in the number and range of corporate supporters, highlighting the variety in the type of organisation and their approach in framing their support.

WLT PR consultants highlighted PR successes for the year to date and previewed forthcoming major events.

The Council also viewed a presentation on fundraising events held in Suffolk over the previous year.

WLT-US

Chairman of the Board of WLT-US, John Mitchell, gave a talk about the organisation, and CEO, Paul Salaman, made a presentation about its work and achievements.